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Tag: SAAS

I bet it wouldn’t be long ago and you face this every day and most probably it was at your work.

Why enterprise applications are the way they are – grey, not intuitive, slow, outdated and takes you back to 80’s ? There have been many swipes on enterprise applications from user experience designers – very rarely enterprises have such a role! – and savvy saas application providers. Here is a swipe from a sexy company 37Signals and I agree.

“The people who buy enterprise software aren’t the people who use enterprise software. That’s where the disconnect begins. And it pulls and pulls and pulls until the user experience is split from the buying experience so severely that the software vendors are building for the buyers, not the users. The experience takes a back seat to the feature list, future promises, and buzz words.”

Is this just an user experience problem ?

Well, user experience is one of the problem on the way how enterprise software applications are purchased or designed if it is designed in house, however, I think the real problem lies in the secret sauce of strategizing, leading, planning, developing and deploying IT systems and in a whole running an IT department.

So what is the secret sauce that can make enterprise software and IT sexy again?

How come new software vendors and saas based product companies churn out sexy software and new features at an incredible pace with probably less than half the resources ?

Why enterprise really have to struggle it out to complete a project successfully, even if it is a project based on a commercial off the shelf(COTS) product ?

I am not the first one to say and lots of industry leaders and enterprise CIOs have been pointing it out that there might be cases where SAAS or Cloud Computing may not be right answer for some enterprises.

In a recent article at IT World Canada, titled “Why SAAS isn’t always the answer”, looks into one specific case, where Manitoba Insurace stayed away from SAAS model largely due to USA Patriot Act.

Yes for businesses in Canada or other countries, its very key to look into the legal aspects and security concerns before signing up with a US based SAAS or Cloud Computing vendor who only has a US data center.

Even for US businesses in the small to medium enterprise segment, from my recent discussion with a CEO, it was very clear, that “Security” is a key factor that may hinder businesses from adopting SAAS or cloud computing.

I am not rushing and concluding about the longer term viability of the business models of the SAAS or Cloud Computing vendors. My inferences lead me to believe that both on-Demand (SAAS, Cloud etc.,) and on-Premise way of delivering software solution will continue to co-exist and the split between the two may vary on FAD of the month or the year.

If you have more time in your hand, this article at CIO.com is a worthy read